The designers stocking at Ensemble

Just look at the designers stocking at Ensemble. There are Faiza Samee and Nilofer Shahid who are brilliant designers but they have never gotten round to running and maintaining a store. Their creative minds are just not suited to the pedantic running of a shop. But they have shown umpteen times. Faiza Samee is probably the most well-known and coveted Pakistani designer in India, while Nilofer Shahid is the only one who has shown in Paris a number of times, invited once by designer Christian Lacroix many years ago and recently twice by Paris Fashion Week impresario Didier Grumbach.

Then there are Kamiar Rokni and Sadaf Malaterre, both new designers who don't have the resources to invest in their own stores. In retrospect, Kamiar split from Karma at an opportune time. Initially designing for clients and from his workshop, he got the opportunity to stock at the Boulevard, the PFDC boutique that opened in Lahore and at Ensemble in Karachi. Sadaf Malaterre too does beautiful Western wear and the clientele for that isn't big enough for her to run her own shop. She can make what she wants to make without hesitation because she doesn't need to worry about overheads. And with Ensemble announcing two seasonal shows a year, paid for by Sunsilk, chances are she won't have to worry about doing her own show either.

And then there is Umar Sayeed, the designer who models himself on Bunto Kazmi. One could have put him in the same bracket as Faiza and Nilofer but one hesitates because this was Umar Sayeed's first show on the catwalk, barring of course the V9 show where he converted V9 lawn into fashion designs. Finally, Ensemble has brought Umar Sayeed out of private wedding trousseaus and into the spotlight, to be judged alongside his peers. A show is a trial by fire for any designer and when designers show one after another as they did that night at Ensemble, it becomes even more so. Comparisons are inevitable and that for the growing fashion industry is a good thing.

Kamiar Rokni and Sadaf Malaterre

One loves the new breed of designers. They're the ones giving the industry new wings with their younger, modern flights of fantasy. And the best part about them is that they leave classicism to the pioneers of fashion and go all out with a whole new aesthetic that is electric on the catwalk. Well, at least that is true for the talented ones and both Kamiar Rokni and Sadaf Malaterre definitely are that and more.

Kamiar Rokni's collection was a mixed bag of what he does. The exciting part was quintessential Kamiar Rokni clothes. And those are the ones that mix East and West in a way that mixes all the nonchalance of Western wear with the razzle dazzle appeal of the East. Kamiar's cuts are flirtatious, while his love of embroidery owes to an innate appreciation of what our design heritage has to offer. Malyha Naipaul walking out in a funky rilli skirt and a gold backless blouse that could have been out of Bollywood epitomized the naughty by nature essence of Kamiar Rokni.

And yet there were times when Kamiar faltered in his collection presenting shaadi wear, with a twist, with bright colours but which still played it safe. That was Kamiar reaching out to the market that is the most lucrative. The problem was that that took away from the impact of his collection showing. But that is the way it is done in Lahore. The tradition is to put up everything that one has got. It's a typical HSY show, up to or over an hour long with every possible genre of clothing one can think of. That is not how fashion collections should be presented and after his stint at Ensemble, one hopes that Kamiar rethinks that.
Sadaf Malaterre showed the way that night. Stocking to the Western wear she loves to do, Sadaf presented dresses that were out of this world, beginning with a floaty off-the-shoulder number that set the beat for a collection in which no silhouette was repeated. From a dress worn by Rubab that was perfect for beach wear, through to the funnest sari one has ever seen, to the elegant balloon skirt Fayezah walked out in for the finale, this was a collection that may not necessarily have been well thought out in terms of a stringent theme, but worked together because each and every piece that came was out there and quirky. The only other designer who's doing pure Western wear is Maheen Karim, but while she is all about elegance and sophistication, Sadaf is all about having fun with what you wear. In that, she and Kamiar Rokni have a very similar design aesthetic. The difference that night was that while Sadaf let it fly, Kamiar tried to subdue his zaniness. Yet together, they were fitting followers to Faiza and Nilofer's sophisticated prêt. The differences between the old guard and the young Turks are many and together, they make Pakistani fashion very exciting.

Corporate angle

The Ensemble shows are set to give an added boost to all the designers who stock there, without the designers lifting a finger to organize them. They came about because Zeba Hussain and Fareshteh Aslam, who do the Lux Carnival De Couture every year, were meeting for one when Fareshteh said that Ensemble needed to do a show for every designer like the one they had done for Shamaeel's comeback earlier last year. Zeba was all set to do it, but needed the resources and that is when Unilever stepped in with the Sunsilk sponsorship.

At the event, Zeba thanked Unilever profusely and said that the evening wouldn't have been possible without them and that is true. Without the money that corporations can provide, events like this would become near impossible. And in the final analysis, what gave this event weight was that one could buy the clothes from Ensemble later. It wasn't an event for corporate heavy weights or social butterflies or a fundraiser with a lofty purpose. It was short, it was snappy and it was very sweet. That was because it was not an end in itself. Rather, it was the beginning of a new cycle for fashion.

Ensemble is all set to do two shows a year, with Sunsilk sponsored shows. Here's hoping that other retailers too gear up and do the same. This is what Labels, the Designers and the Boulevard in Lahore need to do. Through this exercise the designers stocking at these stores will get into the cycle and the very necessary discipline of making two collections a year and showing them. That is the international standard and in the 21st century, it's about time that it applies to Pakistan too.